Encyclopaedia set worth £9,000

By LUCY BALLINGER FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

At £15, this 200-year-old set of Encyclopaedia Britannica seemed a snip.

Charlotte Hampson

Not selling: Charlotte Hampson's family regularly reads the treasures.

And more than 30 years later it has become clear just how much of a bargain it was - as it has emerged that it's really worth £9,000.

The 18 volumes were printed in 1797 and are thought to be the oldest privately owned set.

But owner Charlotte Hampson has no plans to sell them, because they are still in regular use by her family.

The books provide information on everything from how to make medicine to how many children a marriage will bring.

Mrs Hampson, from Chelmsford, Essex, came forward with the third edition set - copies of which have recently sold for £8,750 at auction - after Encyclopaedia Britannica launched a hunt for the oldest collection.

The mother of four, 41, said: 'It is lovely to have a complete set like we do, my father has given them to me and my sister, and I would never consider selling them.

'The fact they are worth a bit of money makes me even more determined to keep them.'

Its listings give a fascinating insight into Britain at the time - including many amusing examples of 'facts' that have since been disproved.

'There is a picture of a giraffe in there too under the listing 'cervus' - which was what they called deer,' said Mrs Hampson. 'The picture is so unlike a giraffe it is clear whoever drew it had never seen one.'

Mrs Hampson's father bought them from a friend in the 1970s, but she believes they originally came from a stately home in Suffolk. She said a worker on the estate was given them when they were no longer needed, and they have since been passed on several times.

She added: 'We had no idea that they were particularly rare or unusual but we've always loved them for their interesting contents and wonderful smell. Mrs Hampson was given a prize including £2,600 and the 2010 Limited Edition version of the encyclopaedia for having the oldest set.

Ian Grant, managing director of Encyclopaedia Britannica, said: 'We are thrilled to have found such a rare and early edition, and one which has been enjoyed by Mrs Hampson's family for many years.'

The founders of Encyclopaedia Britannica - Colin Macfarquhar, Andrew Bell and William Smellie - were reportedly the first writers in the English language to systemise knowledge and enlighten readers about the latest discoveries in the arts, science and literature. Copies of the first two editions are found only in libraries and museums.

The wit and wisdom of 1797

These entries in the 1797 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica show what a different world it was:

˜ Children: Dr Derham (a philosopher) computes that marriages produce four children. As to the duties of children to their parents... we naturally owe subjection and obedience during our minority and honour and reverence everafter.

˜ Pharmacy: Wine of millepeds: Take of live millepeds, bruised, one ounce; Rhenish wine, eight ounces. Infuse them together for twelve hours, and afterwards press the liquor through a strainer. This wine... yields to nothing in the jaundice and obstructions of the kidneys or urinary passages.

˜ Fool: A fool is a person who makes false conclusions from right principles; whereas a madman, on the contrary, draws right conclusions from wrong principles.

˜ Sunday Schools... preserve the children of the poor from spending Sunday in idleness and of consequence in dissipation and vice.

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